THE DAILY TIMES CORRESPONDENT AND MR FOX.

Southland Times, Issue 1262, 7 June 1870, Page 3

THE DAILY TIMES CORRESPONDENT AND MR FOX.

_» (From the Wellington Independent, May 26.) From the columns of the "Evening Post, ' we gather that the " Otagp correspondent" is Mr Gillon, of this city, and complaint is made in the columns of that paper that in consequence of what he wrote to the Otago Daily Times, a commission in the Wellington Volunteers in his favor, which was on the point of being issued, has been cancelled by, the Government. The writer in the Post has evidently been misinformed. Mr Q-illon's commission has been cancelled, as we are informed, not because he wrote in an improper way to the Otago Times, charging the Premier with falsehood and intentional deception, but because he made a public boast of having traded in Government secrets, and defied the Government to find out how he got them. The Government would have acted most unworthily of itself if it had permitted anyone so feting, and who could make a boast of having done it, to hold a commission in any corps of gentlemen in the colony. The Post, while censuring Mr Fox for the severe terms he applied to Mr Gillon, is pleased entirely to leave out the fact that before Mr Fox did so, Mr Gillon had (anonymously) charged him with fraud and falsehood, and given the lie direct to his statements. Very little sympathy, we think, will be felt for Mr Gillon when the facts which the" Post" has so carefully left out are generally known. We have reason to believe that had Mr Gillon allowed time for a reply to his note to Mr Fox, asking for an explanation in reference to the charge supposed to have been made against him as the Wellington correspondent, such an explanation might have beenrgiven and received. Mr Gillon, however, at the same time that he writes to Mr Fox, or even before, also sends his obnoxious letter to the Otago Daily Times, which, of course, renders explanation of the previous matter impossible. Had Mr Gillon really wished to ascertain whether Mr Fox would give him an explanation or correct a mis-statement, he should in common courtesy have allowed time for a reply. We are able to # state, moreover, — having been favored with an opportunity of perusing the telegram mentioned by Mr Gillon, and the accounts to which it refers— that Mr Fox's statements at Dunedin are completely in accordance with the information which that telegram afforded, the fact being that while the telegram referred only to a transfer of certain sums from the unascertained to the ascertained expenditure up to the 31st March, Mr Gillon has evidently misunderstood it (from want of the coritext) to refer to an increase of the sum total of the actual disbursements. So far from Mr Fox having made any reservation with the intention of misleading his audience, he has, if anything, rather stated the case against himself. To sum up the whole case — Mr Gillon's boast to the Otago Daily Times that he could obtain the secrets of the Cabinet in spite of the Ministers, either meant nothing at all, or it conveyed a grave selfaccusation. His charge of wilful and deliberate falsehood against the Premier is wholly unjustifiable, and a most gross insult to so old a colonist placed by the representatives of the country in the high position which Mr Fox now fills. The position which we occupy with regard to Mr Gillon, who has been temporarily connected with our editorial staff, and with reference to Mr Fox as leader of the Government, which we have generally supported, makes the discussion of this subject particularly painful to us. We cannot, however, but come to the conclusion that whatever Mr Gillon now suffers he has brought it entirely upon himself, and unfortunately others less deserving of punishment are likely to suffer in consequence of his act.